Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-07-08
churches and schools and beautiful home
and highest style of
RELIGION AND CIVILIZATION.

RELIGION AND CIVILIZATION.
For fifty years no missionary and M
Christian influence had landed there. VIII,
r this oasis OF light amid desert Of heath
endom? Sixty years before, ship had
met disaster, and one of the sailors, IN
able to save anything else, went to hi:
trunk and took cut a Bible which hi:
mother had placed there, and swan
ashore, the Bible held in his teeth. The
book was read on al sides until the rough
and vicious population was evangelical
and church was started, and an en.
lightened commonwealth established, and
the worlds history has no more brilliant
page thsn that which tells Of the trans
p formation of nation by one book. II
did not seem OF much Importance whether
the sailor continued to hold the book in
his teeth or let it fall in the breakers, but
upon what small circumstance depended
what mighty results.
= Practical inference: There are no in
signifcances in ourIlives. The minutest
thing is part of magnitude. Infnity is
made UP of inhnitesimals. Great things
an aggregation of small things. Bethle-
hem manger pulling on star in the east
ern sky. One book in drenched sailor
mouth the evengelization of multitude.
]
with events for all ages. The fate of
ChristendOm in basket let down from a
window on the wall. What you do, do
well. II you make rope mske il strong
and true, for you know not how much
may depend on your workmanship. II
. you fashion 8 boat let it be waterproof,
for you know not who may sail in it. If
you put e Bible in the trunk Of your boy
as he goes from home, let it be heard in
your prayers, for it may have g mission
as far-reaChIng as the book which the
sailor
CARRIED IN HIS TEETH
70 the Pitcairn beach. The plainest mans
! life is 81 island between two eternities-
eternity past ripping against his shOul-
deTs, eternity TO come touching his brow
/ The casual, the accidental, that which
merely happens SO, are parts of great
| plan, and the rope that .ets the fugitive
apostle from the Damascus wall is the
cable that holds to its mOorings the ship
of church in the northeast storm of the
centuries.
! Again, notice unreCOgniZed and UnTe-
corded services. Who spun that rope?
VINO tied it 10 the basket? Who steadied
/ the illusIrOus preacher IS he stepped
| into it? Who relaxed not 2 muscle Of the
arm or dismissed an anxious LOOK from
/ his face until the Basket touched the
ground and discharged its magnificent
cargo! Not one of their names has come
/ to Us, but there was no work done that
/ day IL Demsscus or in 81 the earth COM
pared with the importance OF their work.
/ What # they had in the agitation tied q
/ knot that could slip? WHAT if the sound
of the mob al the door had led them to
/ say: paul must take care of himself
and we Will take care of ourselves" No,
no, They held the rope, and in doing so
did more for the Christian church than
any thousand Of Us will ever accomplish.
But God knows and has made eternal
record Of their undertaking. And they
know. How UXultant they must have
/ felt when they read his letters TO the RO-
mans, to the Corinthians, to the Galatians,
to the Ephesians, TO the
Philippians to tie Colossians,
to the ThessalCnians, to Timothy, to
Titus, to Philemon, to the Hebrews, and
when they heard how he walked out of
prison with the earthquake unlocking the
door for him, and TOOK command Of the
AleXandrian corn ship when the sailors
were nearly scared to death, and
PREACHED A SERMON
that nearly shook Felix of his Judgment
seat. l hear the men and women who
helped him down through the window and
over the wall, talking in private over the
matter, and saying: GLOW glad l am that
we effected that rescue! In coming times
others may get the glory of Paul's work,
but no one shall rob US Of the satisfaction
of knowing that we held the rope"
Once for thiTty-siX hours we expected
every moment to &C 10 the bottom of the
ocean. The waves struck through the
skylights and rushed down into the hold
of the ship and Missed against the boilers.
1t was sp awful time, but by the blessing
of God and the fsithfulness of the men in
charge we came out of The cyclone and
we arrived ct home. Each one, before
leaving the ship, thanked Captain An
drews. l DO not think there Wss g man
or woman that went off that ship without
thanking Captain Andrews, and when
years after l heard Of his death | was i'm
PEELED TO write letter of coincidence TO
mis- family in Liverpool. Everybody re-
CCgniZed the goodness, the courage, the
kindness of Captain Andrews; but il OC-
ours TO me now that we never thanked |
the engineer. He stood away down in
the darkness amid the Kissing furnaces /
doing his whole duty. Nobody thanked !
the engineer, but God recognized his |
heToism and his continuance and his f. |
deity, and there will be Just as high re-
ward for the engineer who worked out Of |
sight, as for the captain who stood on |
the bridge Of the ship in the midst of the |
bowling tempest.
There ere said to be about G., 900 min |
listers of religion in this country. About |
30, 900 I warrant came from early homes !
which had to struggle for the necessaries !
of life. The sons of rich bankers and |
merchants generally become bankers and |
merchants. The most of those who be- |
come.ministers are the sons of those who |
had terrific struggles to get their every |
bread. The collegiate and theological |
education of that son took every luxury |
from the parental table
FOR EIGHT YEARS.
The other children were more scantily |
sppareIIed. The son ct college every lit |
tie while got bundle from home. In it |
were the socks that mother had knit,
sitting up late at night, her sight not so
good as once it was. And there also
were some deHcacies from the sisters
hand for the voracioGs appetite Of hun
CRY student. The father swung the heavy
cradle through the wheat, the sweat roll
ing from his chin. believing every step
of the way, and then sitting down under
the cherry tree 81 noon thinking 10 him
self: ~ am fearfully tired, but it will
pay me If l can once see that boy through
college, and if l can know that he will be